The heroes around us

Monday

May 28, 2007 at 12:01 AM

This is the day we remember and revere Americans who died fighting their country's wars; the day we contemplate the stunning pain their sudden deaths visited on their families and friends, as well as the loss of their contributions to their communities, their country and the world.This is also one of those Memorial Days - there have been too many - when the commemoration is not an abstract and passing thought as we pack up to go to the beach. It is one of those Memorial Days when new Americans might join the thousands laid to sleep under small white markers, row on row.In most cases, these sons, husbands and fathers, daughters, wives and mothers, played little or no role in the decision to go to war. Foreign aggressors decided it, or American politicians decided it was unavoidable, or perhaps desirable.But whatever the origin of the war, whatever its wisdom, Americans marched off to do their duty. It often was a miserable and horrifying business, but they did what they had to do. Some never came back.On this Memorial Day, thousands have come back. Modern medicine spared them from death. But it did not spare them from suffering. They have come back maimed in body or spirit, disabled in part or in whole, a sadness to their loved ones and a challenge to the rest of us.These are the men and women who risked their lives on our behalf. These are the ones who have given up part of their lives - the work they hoped to do, the fun they hoped to have, the families they hoped to support.The dead are not beyond our gratitude, but they are beyond our help. The wounded are not.